Pope encourages Ukrainian seminarians to peace, ecumenism

Vatican City, Nov 9, 2017 / 11:16 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Meeting with the community of a Ukrainian Greek Catholic seminary in Rome on Thursday, Pope Francis encouraged them build up justice and peace in their homeland.

“Today the world is wounded by wars and violence,” the Pope reflected Nov. 9 during his meeting at the Vatican's Clementine Hall with the community of the Ukrainian Pontifical College of Saint Josaphat.

"In particular, your beloved Ukrainian nation, whence you came and where you will return at the end of your Roman studies, is experiencing the drama of war, which generates great suffering."

He added that “strong is the aspiration to justice and to peace, which bars any form of prevarication, social or political corruption, realities for which the poor always pay the price. God sustains and encourages those who are committed to realizing a society characterized ever more by justice and solidarity.”

Pope Francis' meeting with the college, which serves seminarians and priests of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, comes 85 years after its present building as opened on Rome's Janiculum Hill, at the request of Pius XI.

Francis recalled his predecessor's particular concern for the faithful living in areas of suffering and persecution; at the time of the college's founding, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union.

“In the years of his pontificate, Pius XI always and firmly raised his voice in defending the faith, the freedom of the Church, and the transcendent dignity of every human person,” Francis said. “He clearly condemned, through speeches and letters, the atheistic and inhumane ideologies that bloodied the twentieth century. He brought to light their contradictions by indicating the Church as the high road of the Gospel, and also putting into practice the search for social justice, an indispensable dimension of the fully human redemption of peoples and nations.”

He invited the seminarians “to study the social doctrine of the Church, so as to mature in discernment and judgement of the social realities in which you are called to operate.”

While the call to peace may seem unreachable, Pope Francis said that “by loving and anouncing the Word, you will become true pastors of the communities entrusted to you, and it will be the lamp that illuminates your heart and your home, whether you prepare for the celibate or married priesthood, according to tradition of your Church.”

Considering the war, corruption, and strife among Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches which Ukraine is facing, Francis told the seminarians “to ensure your heart lies always in wide horizons, which have the measure of the whole world … love and care for your traditions, but avoid any form of sectarianism.”

He recalled the rainbow as a sign of God's covenant with humanity which calls man “to learn to love and respect each other, to abandon their weapons, to reject war and all kinds of abuse.”

“If you walk this way and teach others to do the same, especially in the fundamental ecumenical dialogue, I am certain that from the heavenly homeland all the bishops and priests – some formed at your college – who have given their lives or have suffered persecution because of their fidelity to Christ and to the Apostolic See will smile at you and support you.”

Pope Francis also recalled his relationship with Fr. Stefan Czmil, from whom he came to appreciate the Divine Liturgy of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Fr. Czmil was born in Sudova Vyshnia in what was then Austria-Hungary in 1914 and grew up in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Drawn to the example of St. John Bosco and his work, he decided to join the Salesians in order to educate poor young people in Ukriaine.

In 1930 Pope Pius XI granted permission for Eastern rite candidates to the Salesians to retain their rite and Church traditions and Fr. Czmil was sent to northern Italy for formation. He was professed as a member of the Salesians in 1935.

He studied for the priesthood in Italy during World War II and was ordained a priest of the order in 1945. While in Italy he helpd many Ukrainian refugees to find new homes.

In 1948 he was sent to Argentina to serve Ukrainian immigrants, where he met a young Jorge Bergoglio.

“This was good for me, because the man spoke of persecutions, of sufferings, of ideologies that were persecuting Christians,” Pope Francis told the seminarians. “And he taught me to open myself to a different liturgy, which I keep always in my heart for its beauty.”

Fr. Czmil was later sent back to Rome, where he was secretly consecrated a bishop in 1977. He died the following year.

Francis recalled that while he was in Buenos Aires, Major Archbishop Shevchuk had asked him for testimonies with which to open the cause for canonization of Fr. Czmil.

“I wanted to remember him today because it is just to give thanks before you for the good he did me,” the Pope told the seminarians.

“I accompany you with my blessing, invoking peace and ecumenical harmony for Ukraine.”

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Vatican City, Jan 26, 2018 / 10:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis met with the members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Friday, affirming the dignity of every person and emphasizing the Church’s task of accompanying the ill and suffering, especially in the face of increasing support for euthanasia.

Pain, suffering, and the meaning of life and death are all problems the contemporary mind does not know how to face with hope, the Pope said Jan. 26, and therefore “this is one of the duties that the Church is called to render to contemporary man.”

“It is clear that where life is valid not for its dignity, but for its efficiency and productivity, [euthanasia] becomes possible. In this scenario it must be reiterated that human life, from conception to its natural end, has a dignity that renders it inviolable.”

Pope Francis met at the Vatican’s Clementine Hall with the members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the conclusion of their plenary session, praising their study of “the sensitive issues” surrounding the accompaniment of terminally ill patients.

Secularization and the emphasis on self-determination and personal autonomy have increased the demand for euthanasia, he noted, and many people believe that the “voluntary interruption of human existence [is] a choice of ‘civilization.’”

Therefore, authentic pastors have an opportunity to accompany people in difficult circumstances, with an accompaniment that does not “abandon man to himself, nor leave him in the grip of his disorientation and his errors, but with truth and mercy,” brings him back to the good, Francis said.

“Authentic pastoring therefore is every action aimed at taking man by the hand, when he has lost the sense of his dignity and his destiny, to lead him with confidence to rediscover the loving fatherhood of God, his good destiny and the ways to build a more human world.”

The Pope also expressed his appreciation for the congregation’s commitment to protecting the faith and the sanctity of the sacraments.

In particular, he pointed to their work examining cases concerning graviora delicta, external violations against faith and morals or in the celebration of the sacraments; and applications for the dissolution of the matrimonial bond in favor of the faith.

This is especially important today, he said, as man’s understanding of self becomes ever more fluid and changeable, influencing his existential and ethical choices.

“The man of today no longer knows who he is and, therefore, struggles to recognize how to act well.”

“In this sense, the task of your Congregation appears decisive in recalling the transcendent vocation of man and the indivisible connection of his reason with truth and goodness, which introduces faith in Jesus Christ,” he said.

“Nothing helps man to know himself and God’s plan for the world like the opening of reason to the light that comes from God.”

Vatican City, Jun 13, 2017 / 02:09 pm (CNA).- Philosopher Nigel Biggar, who backs legal abortion, is among the 45 new appointments to the Pontifical Academy for Life, according to a statement on the Vatican website.

Vatican City, Jul 12, 2017 / 02:18 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a message sent to catechists from all over the world, Pope Francis stressed the need to not only make Christ the center of their lives, but to be creative and adaptable in finding ways to reach the people in their area.

“The catechist is creative; they search for different means and forms of announcing Christ,” the Pope said in his July 12 message.

Believing in Jesus is “beautiful,” he said, because Jesus is the way, truth and life “who fills our existence with joy and gladness.”

“This quest to make Jesus known as supreme beauty leads us to find new signs and ways of transmitting the faith,” he said, noting that while the means might be different, what’s important is to imitate “the style of Jesus, who adapted to the people he had before him in order to make them close to the love of God.”

To change and adapt oneself in order to make the message closer to the people is necessary, he said, but stressed that at the same time, the message being transmitted is “always the same, because God doesn’t change, but renews all things in him.”

Pope Francis said that in the quest of making Jesus known to the world, “we must not be afraid because he precedes us in this task. He is already in the man of today, and there awaits us.”

The Pope sent his message to participants in the First International Symposium on Catechesis, which is taking place July 11-14 in Buenos Aires.

The event is being offered through the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina (UCA), and is organized by the Episcopal Commission for Catechesis and Biblical Pastoral Care.

Pope Francis opened his message, sent in Spanish, by referencing a quote from his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi.

He noted that at a certain point, when one of St. Francis’ followers asked to be taught how to preach, the saint responded by saying: “Brother, when we visit the sick, help children and give to the poor, we are already preaching.”

“In this beautiful lesson is enclosed the vocation and task of the catechist,” he said, explaining that catechesis is not simply a job or a task external to the person of the catechist.

Rather, “their whole life revolves around this mission,” he said, noting that to be a catechist is “a vocation of service in the Church, which is received as a gift on the part of the Lord and must in turn be transmitted.”

To do this, one must return to the first encounter with Christ that changed their life. This moment, Francis said, is “the fundamental announcement that must resonate again and again in the life of the Christian, and even more in the one who is called to announce and teach the faith.”

The Pope then pointed to the importance of respecting popular piety in the people, saying it’s important to “care for the potential of piety and love that popular religiosity holds so that they transmit not only the contents off the faith, but a true school of faith is created which cultivates the gift of the faith that has been received.”

A catechist is also someone who journeys both from and with Christ, he said. “They are not a person who starts from their own ideas and preferences, but who allows themselves to look to him, to this gaze that makes their heart burn.”

The more that Jesus is the center of our lives, the more he teaches us to go out of ourselves, Francis said, adding that we are then “decentralized” and able to be close to others.

“This dynamism of love is like the movement of the heart,” and Jesus himself gives us an example of how to live this when he retreats to pray, and then “immediately goes to the encounter of those who are hungry and thirsty for God in order to heal and save them.”

“From here arises the importance of the ‘mystagogical’ catechesis, which is the constant encounter with the Word and with the sacraments, and not something merely occasional prior to the celebration of the sacraments of Christian initiation,” he said.

Pope Francis closes his speech by thanking catechists for their work, “above all because you walk with the People of God,” and encouraged them “to be joyful messengers, guardians of the good and the beauty that shines forth in the faithful life of the missionary disciple.”

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